The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) Read Online Free

me. Not
since that first kiss when he was locked up a jail cell had he made a move. Either
he was oblivious, or he was too respectful of my training to try anything. Some
days it was enough to make me tear off my green robe and stomp on it when
nobody was looking.
    The breeze brushed my face and I
closed my eyes, reliving my one and only kiss. At the time I’d been angry,
confused and terrified.
    My eyes flew open and I picked up
my pace. I couldn’t re-live that fateful night without thinking of Hue Briar. That
was the night I’d discovered that he wasn’t what he seemed.
    I shivered in spite of the warm day.
Somebody waved hello as I walked by, but I ignored them. How many times would I
see Hue’s beautiful blue eyes clouded with hate? How many more times would I
have to see him consumed by fire? The memories were inescapable. They made me
wake up some nights shaking.
    Hue’s only crime had been becoming
Robyn’s puppet, and he’d done it for me. He’d loved me and he died because of
it.
    Hue’s father, the Duke of Briar,
was incensed over the loss. His relationship with Hue had not been close, but
Hue was his only heir. Now the future of the duke’s overseas domain was
uncertain. Messengers arrived every week from Larlaith with the duke’s
accusations and demands for answers. He refused to believe that his son was a
casualty of nothing more than love and misplaced trust.
    “Tsk tsk,” the cathedral door said
when I arrived. “Your aura is as black as a lump of coal in an ink well.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Boys again,” the door guessed.
“You’d best forget they exist if you wish to continue towards becoming a
priestess. Remember—”
    “A whole spirit means a peaceful
mind and an unchained heart. Yes, I remember. Can I go in now? I think I’m
running late.”
    “It wouldn’t be the first time,”
the door said.
    Once inside, I slid off my shoes
and looked around.
    In the time since I’d begun my
training, the cathedral had grown and revealed itself to me. I used to walk
into a long, dark empty hallway. Now I saw many, many doors and heard the
voices of all the priests and priestesses who filled the place. They shuffled
back and forth between the cathedral’s expansive rooms, sometimes carrying
strange objects. Once I’d even seen a priestess walk by carrying a potted
shrub. This in and of itself was not remarkable; all priests and priestesses
were required to do some gardening. What was remarkable was that a spirit was
sitting atop the shrub.
    My own Spirit Mentor appeared in a
large sapling, but I could not carry it around with me. The thought of lugging
around the tree with my Spirit Mentor peeking from the branches struck me as
funny. It helped to take my mind off Hue.
    “Aha! Caught you smiling! That’s a
first,” Anouk said as approached with a basket of seeds.
    I glanced at the basket. “Is that
from the library?”
    The fawn-eyed priestess laughed. It
was an infectious sound. “Goodness no! This is an ingredient for supper
tonight. I’m making my special crispy bread for the other trainees. Will you be
able to join us?”
    I’d promised Chloe I’d dine with
her and after that I was hoping to get in some combat practice with Lev. “Sorry,”
I said. “I’ve got stuff to do.”
    “Then I’ll just have to save a
slice for you, won’t I?”
    I smiled. It was hard to stay in a
bad mood around Anouk. “Sounds good. What’s on the agenda today?”
    “A session with your Spirit
Mentor,” Anouk said as she stirred a fingertip around in the basket of hard,
shiny seeds. “Then a history recital with me.”
    “No library?” I loved going to the
cathedral library. It was an orchard where all the knowledge grew as fruit on
trees. I spent hours there some days learning as much as I could. In the past
months, I’d become proficient in all things Fay, from their written language to
their biology and demographics. It came as a surprise to learn that there were
other pockets of Fay with